Monday, September 30, 2013

As I write this, the US Government is on the verge of a shut
down because Congress is playing games with our money and our lives and would
rather engage in pointless fighting than pass legislation that would continue
to fund the US Government.They’d rather
shut it down than work out a compromise.

And I am pissed!!

Some random rants and observations:

A shutdown means ‘Non-essential’ personnel don’t work till
this is resolved, many/most Government offices and facilities will close, including
National Parks and the Smithsonian Museums.Military personnel will continue to work but they might not get a pay
check for awhile.Are you kidding me?

Here is a slightly better explanation of what could happen
at midnight, quoted from CNN … Without
congressional approval of new spending legislation, parts of the federal
government will begin shutting down when the current fiscal year ends at
midnight, forcing agencies to furlough thousands of workers and curtail some
services until there is a resolution.

The non-essential employees don’t get paid while this is
going on BUT CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT DO GET PAID.So they have nothing to lose by playing this
dangerous game.

The Cowards of Congress are busy bending to the
extremes.Spineless!Republican leaders are scared of the
completely misguided extremist Tea Party idiots.The Tea Party people do not represent
Republican ideals of normal, majority moderate Republicans.Stubborn Liberals on the other end are also
extreme and do not represent moderate Democrats like me.Most Americans are in the middle.Most UNbiased surveys verify that.

Conservative Republicans whine about ‘big government’ yet
Repub Senator What’s-his-name from Texas held the floor for 21 hours one day
last week. He rambled for TWENTY ONE FREAKIN’ HOURS, wasting time reading Dr.
Seuss and other nonsense that had nothing to do with making his points.And We the People PAY FOR THAT CRAP?!?!Aren’t we HIS BOSS?Why aren’t we firing him and anyone else who
violates the serious mission we elect Senators and Representatives to do?

It’s time for term limits!Congress should not be a career.We elect those people to serve US.Our Presidents serve a maximum of eight years; why should law-makers
serve longer?Or till death?

Hey, Tea Party people … the Affordable Care Act was passed
two years ago and is already law.Deal
with it.Quit playing games with our
lives and our money by throwing up mindless obstacles, risking the negative
impact of a shut-down government to accomplish a misguided goal.The law will continue.It will be funded.Quite wasting our time and money and sanity.Work on something else like tax reform.

Republicans keep adding amendments to the funding bill, amendments
that would defund the affordable healthcare act, better known as Obamacare.Hey, like I said, the law is already
law.Stop playing games.

I had a great conversation with a former Republican
Representative from Virginia recently at an awards ceremony.He said Congress is broken and that is why he
chose to not run again.During his years
in Congress he was known for realistic compromise.He listened to his constituents more than to
the extremes of his party.That is how
it should work.

There were two shutdowns in 1995.It cost taxpayers an estimate $1.2 BILLION.

If the government shuts down at Midnight, more than a
million Federal worker will be affected, with no promise of back pay.Social Security and veteran benefit checks will
still go out but might be delayed because there will be fewer people processing
them; people who depend on those checks are the ones who can least afford that
kind of delay.

Yet Congress continues to get paid, as I said before.Democratic Representative Gary Peters from
Michigan says he will not take his pay if the government shuts down and if he
gets back pay he’ll donate it to local charities.A good example.ALL Senators and Representatives AND the
President and VP should follow that example.

Our democratic system is built on compromise.That is at the heart of our success as a
country and as a society.We don’t
always agree but we do find a way to make it all work.Usually.But tonight there are loud extremists who don’t give a shit about any of
that.All they want is to position themselves
as candidates for future office.No Tea
Party jerk will ever become President.We the People are not that stupid.

Work together Congress!!Do what we are paying you to do.

I am an angry 50-plus American citizen, a registered voter
and I vote in EVERY election!I am not
alone. Senate, Congress, what you do in the next two hours will make a lot of
difference to me.And I have a long
memory.Do the right thing.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

I spent last weekend in Sin City, Las Vegas.This is my third annual visit there for the
iHeart Radio Music Festival and my overall impression is the same … it is a
great place to escape reality.Here are
some random thoughts and observations:

- Crowds in the afternoon and night, not so bad in the morning
when they’re all sleeping off their day of decadence.

- There is a hotel/attraction built to look like New York,
another is Paris, another is Egypt.Paris has a simulated Eiffel Tower.Yes, I had to go to the top.The
picture shows a view from there.

- Most men dressed in flowered Hawaiian style shirts appear to
be my age or older.I am rethinking that
part of my wardrobe.

- With that thought in mind, I walked into a couple of
clothing places.The Ross store clothes
were way too cheap for my taste.The $14
shirts just looked cheap.The two stores
in the Mandalay Bay shops looked great and unique in a one-of-a-kind way.Shirts cost $265.That’s not a typo.The half-price sale rack?Do the math … still insanely expensive.Most shirts I own cost less than $50, so even
if I want to pay more for ‘unique’ I can’t make a $135 shirt make sense.Who spends that kind of money on a
shirt?So I bought a House of Blues
t-shirt for $25.

- Vegas is loud and bright 24/7.

- Music, ads, vendors, random people on the street handing out
‘free show’ tickets.Last year I saw
Elvis on the street, this year I saw Batman.And an incredible Michael Jackson.

- The festival was incredible.Twenty or more acts, most well-known, representing all genres of
music.If I’m starting to sound like a
commercial it might be because I make commercials for the festival as part of
my job.But I was truly impressed with
the variety of music … Elton John, Paul McCartney, Maroon 5, Tim McGraw, Bruno
Mars, Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Fun, Muse, Justin Timberlake, what’s left of
Queen with plenty of other festival stars sitting in.Wow!

- It is very dry there.Humidity was sometimes less than 10%.Sort of like breathing cardboard.I’m sure I drank several gallons of water.

- I also drank quite a bit of rum, some of it free because of
some concert VIP pre-parties.

- I did not gamble.I usually
plan to lose some money playing slot machines, maybe around $40.High roller, ey?But this time I watched a friend lose
money.I left a couple hundred of my dollars
in Vegas in the form of paying for some meals and drinks.

Like I said, I love visiting Vegas for a few days at a
time.It is a great escape from reality.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What’s that old saying … something like ‘a long journey
begins with one step’ … something like that.Well, I have rediscovered the first step toward improved health …
walking.The health and psychological
benefits of walking begin with one step.

On most mornings for the past two weeks I have jumped out of
bed around 6 or 6:30 … OK, jump isn’t exactly accurate … I woke up, sat at the
edge of my bed silently cursing my alarm, stepped slowly into my bathroom,
brushed my teeth, put some clothes on and stepped out of my apartment into the
morning air and walked.

These walks are now fairly brisk walks and my stride is
longer.The round trip walk to Starbucks
and back is a mile.Hey, I’m not giving
up my morning coffee.Call these walks ‘multitasking’
… I quickly walk to my caffeine-infused destination, buy my coffee and return
home to drink it.

I love the morning, love watching the world wake up, love
stepping through my neighborhood when few cars are moving.I love the people-watching opportunities,
even at daybreak … joggers, walkers, people at bus stops, neighbors walking
dogs, an informal prayer group under the town pavilion.The line at Starbucks is rarely
more than two deep that early.The
quirky staff there provides early morning entertainment.I walk past a fitness place and watch early
risers doing group cardio routines (and I might join them soon).

By the way, during this same two weeks I have been sleeping
much better, my recurring back pains are mostly gone and I’ve lost a little
weight (measured in a belt notch rather than pounds).

Monday, September 16, 2013

I see and hear 'religious' commentary claiming one path or the other is the only way a person should believe (or not believe). I disagree with most of it. Religion and spirituality are personal matters for each of us and not something to be dictated to us by other people. This graphic sums it up nicely, in my opinion.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

I recently found an incredible nugget of self-help.Basically it’s a list of 21 things to let go
to become happy.Click Here for the
whole article.Although it is written
for men, the advice is not really gender-specific.I do not agree with all of it, but there are
plenty of suggestions that I believe are helpful and I had already adopted some
of this advice before finding this article.

Here are a few of my takeaways, quoted directly from the
article:

Know that you can’t
control much in life, but you can always control your reaction. Flow through
the world smoothly. When there is resistance, flow around it. When there is
opportunity, flow right through it.

Remember, we have no
control over the things that happen to us and the changes that occur around us,
but we always have control over how we respond.

Let go of thinking you are not enough. You are enough and you deserve to have everything that you want.
You’re also your worst enemy and your hardest life critic

When you tell yourself you can’t do it, you’re always right. You
can or you can’t. The decision is yours.For many people, what’s called Automatic Negative Thinking can be
crippling—throughout their day, constantly, hundreds of times, negative
thoughts buzz through their head.

It’s hard to get good things done when your head’s full of
negative emotions.

Likewise, automatic positive thoughts can help propel you to new
levels of happiness and productivity. You set the tone and control your mind
fully. Take control of it, make a habit of positive thinking, and watch the
results follow. Start now.

So, focus on being the
best version of yourself you can be, focus on the people you care about, and
focus on the activities and goals you’re passionate about. When you follow your
truest desires, that drive and optimism will translate into all the money you
need to live the life you want.

Speaking of quotes, here are a
few from well-known people.These are
also noted in the article.

It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and
there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the
now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can
hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.

– George Harrison

Building up your resume is like saving up sex for old age

– Warren Buffet

.

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has
no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.

– Jim Morrison

If the relationship can’t survive the long term, why on
earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?

About Me

INTERESTS

Coffee at the White House

Followers

Excerpts from a song I like

You and me together, we could do anything baby. You and me together, yes yes.
Wanna pack your bags, something small, take what you need
and we disappear without a trace we’ll be gone, gone
You and I, we’re not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed, we’re gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky
We gonna ride the blue all the way to the end of the world, to the end of the world.
We can look back at what we did, all these memories of you and me baby
But right now it’s you and me forever girl
You know that you and me, we could do anything
Two of us together, we could do anything

-- Dave Matthews

Lyrics I Wish I'd Written

The first time we kissed I lost my legs.

Dave Matthews

Baby this could be our last first kiss,

history in the making

Darius Rucker

Life's not the breaths you take

...but the moments that take your breath away.

sung by George Strait

So tell that someone that you love

just what you're thinking of

if tomorrow never comes

Garth Brooks

I’ve lost the use of my heart
But I’m still alive,
Still looking for the life
The endless pool on the other side.
I’m a soldier of love.
Sade